2004: A sports odyssey

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One met his destiny with moistened eyes. One had a smile that
rivalled the sunrise. One turned Tim Tams into precious metal. And
one became infamous not for what she did, but what she stopped
doing.

They were Ian Thorpe, Jodie Henry, Ryan Bayley and Sally
Robbins, and together they made this an Olympic year to savour.

Thorpe is such a supreme athlete that normal judgment has to be
suspended when assessing his deeds. In Athens, he became
Australia's most successful Olympian, winning the 200m and 400m
freestyle titles to take his career haul to five gold medals - one
more than Dawn Fraser, Murray Rose and Betty Cuthbert.

Appropriately, his 400m victory was the first Australian gold
medal of the Games, but he almost didn't make it into the event
after his "Oops" tumble off the blocks in the Olympic trials in
Sydney.

Thorpe accepted the medal with a tear in his eye and dedicated
it to Craig Stevens, who withdrew his nomination to allow Thorpe to
swim.

It was, however, the 200m which gave Thorpe the most
satisfaction.

It was billed as the Race of the Century. Thorpe won it,
avenging his loss to Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband in Sydney
four years earlier and inflicting the only individual defeat of the
Games on American Michael Phelps.

"I think people have their fate, their destiny. That's what it
was. It just happened for me," Thorpe said.

He made it sound and look routine, and indeed Australia expected
no less.

Which is why Jodie Henry's three gold medals came with a special
lustre.

Henry went to Athens more or less anonymously. She left the
ancient city as Australia's new sporting sweetheart; the nation's
first Olympic 100m freestyle champ since Dawn Fraser, world
record-holder, and possessor of the most bankable smile in
swimming.

The Australian swim team won seven of Australia's record 17 gold
medals, and butterfly stalwart Petria Thomas, on
thrice-reconstructed shoulders, farewelled the sport by winning
three of them.

For sheer guts, though, none could touch the performance of
Grant Hackett in winning his second consecutive 1500m title. After
the race he was so weak his legs could barely carry him to the
podium. Some months later he revealed he had swum the toughest of
all Olympic swimming events with a partially-collapsed lung.

The surprise packets of the Australian team were the cyclists.
The build-up to the Games was dominated by allegations of dark
practices with the syringe, but most of this was swept away by
performances on both track and road.

The undoubted star was Ryan Bayley, who defied convention and
sports science by powering himself with KFC and chocolate Tim Tams.
With his partner, a dietician, looking on in bewilderment, the
spotty-faced kid from Perth proved himself the fastest thing on two
wheels by winning gold medals in the sprint and keirin.

Tragedy ... David Hookes

The cyclists won six gold medals, helping Australia to fourth on
the overall medal table behind super powers the United States,
China and Russia.

For sheer theatre, however, the Lay Down Sally affair was in an
Olympic class of its own, outdoing even the saga of Jana Pittman's
knee.

Sally Robbins, a member of the Australian women's eight, stopped
rowing over the final 600 metres of the final, at one stage lying
back in the boat, unable to go on.

Most of her crewmates were furious, one threatening to throw her
in the water. Crew captain Julia Wilson evoked memories of Bill
Woodfull's Bodyline speech when she said: "We had nine in the boat
but only eight operating."

The episode sparked an astonishing level of debate in Australia,
mainly among those who wouldn't know an oar from a leg of lamb.
Public opinion was evenly split on whether Robbins was victim or
shirker.

It later emerged that Robbins had done similar things in the
past and tempers were still sufficiently frayed for another of her
crewmates to slap her at an official function back in
Australia.

Strained relationships were also on the menu for Australia's
elite tennis players.

Lleyton Hewitt resurrected his career and climbed back to second
in the world, but broke up with his Belgian fiancee Kim
Clijsters.

Mark Philippoussis broke it off with Delta Goodrem, but unlike
Hewitt, his career went the other way in 2004 as he lost 13
first-round matches and dropped out of the top 100.

Alicia Molik, apparently unencumbered by romantic dramas, picked
up three tournament victories, an Olympic bronze medal, and a place
in the world's top 15.

Considering his career extended only into the first week of the
year, Steve Waugh still managed to cast an imposing shadow.

The Australian of the Year played his 168th and final Test in
Sydney, bequeathing to Ricky Ponting the most successful team in
history.

Typically, Waugh put regret to one side and got on with the rest
of his life. "There's nothing to be sad about," he said.

Within a few weeks there was something to be very sad about.

David Hookes lay dead, his life snuffed out at 48 during a
post-match celebration at a Melbourne pub.

Unlike Waugh, Hookes was a player whose career did not do
justice to his talent. His finest hour in the game was perhaps his
first, when the 21-year-old strode imperiously onto the MCG in the
Centenary Test of 1977 and struck the England captain Tony Greig
for five consecutive boundaries.

The Victorian Bushrangers, the team Hookes had coached, offered
the best tribute they could - by winning the domestic four-day
title for the first time in 13 years.

Meanwhile the Test team moved on. Shane Warne returned from a
12-month drug ban to become the first spinner to take 500 Test
wickets. He and the equally controversial Muttiah Muralitharan
traded the world record for much of the year, while Matthew Hayden
saw his individual batting record of 380 surpassed by Brian Lara's
400.

With Ponting nursing a broken thumb, Adam Gilchrist led the team
beyond what had become known as the final frontier - victory in
India for the first time in 35 years.

The players didn't overlook their former skipper's contribution,
even though he was watching from his home in southern Sydney. "This
one's for you, Tugga," Gilchrist said in his moment of triumph in
Nagpur.

The 2-1 series win introduced to Test cricket a scintillating
new talent. Michael Clarke, 23, made a rollicking 151 in his maiden
Test innings in Bangalore. He also took 6-9 with his left-arm
spinners in the final Test, and went home top of both the batting
and bowling averages.

To prove it was no fluke, Clarke then scored a century in his
first Test innings on home soil as Australia slaughtered New
Zealand 2-0. He is the most exciting young Australian batsman since
Ponting, and perhaps since Doug Walters.

Australia's golfers had a vintage year, highlighted by Craig
Parry's career shot to win at Doral.

Tied with Scott Verplank after 72 holes, Parry holed a six-iron
for eagle from 161 metres at the first playoff hole.

Australians won seven tournaments on the rich US PGA Tour. Adam
Scott won twice, including the prestigious Players Championship,
and with a record 21 Australians (including occasional starter Greg
Norman) exempt for the 2005 tour there seems every likelihood of
more success to follow. But Australia's drought in majors stretches
back to Steve Elkington's US PGA title in 1995.

Peter Lonard dominated the domestic circuit, winning the NSW
Open, Australian Open (in its centenary year) and Australian PGA
title in successive weeks, then failed in his bid to make it four
in a row when Richard Green won the Masters.

Karrie Webb had another so-so year, winning one US tournament
and finishing ninth on the money list, but nowhere near challenging
her rival Annika Sorenstam for world supremacy.

On the water, Layne Beachley's run of six consecutive world
surfing championships came to an end, while in the boxing ring
Kostya Tszyu returned after a 22-month lay-off with a knockout
victory over Sharmba Mitchell to retain his IBF junior welterweight
title.

Australia's netballers recovered from four consecutive losses to
arch rivals New Zealand to beat them 2-1 in a home Test series.

The Wallabies, beaten finalists in the 2003 World Cup, slipped
down the ladder a little in a season in which they won nine of 12
Tests, but finished the year on a high by beating England at
Twickenham.

The game's domestic expansion continued apace when Perth was
named as host city for the country's fourth team when Super 12
becomes Super 14 in 2006.

Rugby League endured a traumatic start to the season. Six
Bulldogs players were alleged to have raped a woman during a
pre-season trip to Coffs Harbour. Players attracted criticism for
turning up to formal police interviews wearing shorts and thongs.
No charges were laid, though police said there was physical
evidence of rape.

The first State of Origin match was overshadowed by sex and
booze scandals during a NSW team bonding session.

Willie Mason, who was booed by his home crowd when he took the
field in Origin I, completed the season in triumph. NSW won the
interstate series 2-1 and Mason starred in the Bulldogs' grand
final victory over the Sydney Roosters, but later suffered a
serious leg injury in an exhibition match in New York which will
put him out for six months.

The Kangaroos were in danger of losing a series in Great Britain
for the first time in more than three decades, but bounced back
resoundingly to win the Tri-series final Test 44-4 at Leeds.

The game farewelled two of its greats - Brad Fittler and Gorden
Tallis, and welcomed an emerging superstar, New Zealander Sonny
Bill Williams.

Australian football can now consider itself a truly national
game, as for the first time in 108 years no Victorian team made the
grand final.

The Brisbane Lions, winners of the previous three AFL flags,
failed to match Collingwood's all-time record of four consecutive
premierships when they went down to Port Adelaide.

West Coast's Chris Judd won the Brownlow Medal in a count which
was dominated by players from non-Victorian teams.

And one of the all-time greats took his leave of football when
Wayne Carey's doctors told him he risked serious neck damage if he
continued playing.

Australian soccer (Johnny Warren went to his grave unable to
convince his countrymen to call it football) presented a new face
with a revamped A-League to begin in 2005 under the stewardship of
businessman Frank Lowy and former rugby boss John O'Neill.

The Socceroos treadled away against sub-standard Oceania teams
and managed the stellar feat of beating England in England.

Their eyes remain fixed on a place in the 2006 World Cup in
Germany, but to get there they will still have to beat the
fifth-ranked South American team in a home-and-away series,
something that has proved beyond them in the past.